The family, from father to son, served offi cially
as hydrographers and cartographers to the kings of France. Joseph Roux (1725-93) became unwittingly the artistic patriarch of a dynasty of marine painters, a vocation advanced by his able son Ange-Joseph Antoine Roux, père (1765-1835) and carried on thereafter by three of his sons, Mathieu-Antoine (1799- 1872) – known as Antoine Roux, fi ls François Joseph Frédéric (1805-1870) – known as Frédéric – and François Geoffroi (1811-1882), known as François. Ship captains and masters worldwide were among their patrons, particularly those from America, which has resulted in the largest collection of their works, outside Paris’s Musée de la Marine, and the Marseilles’ Musée Cantini, being held by the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. There were many sailors and shipmasters in the family whose nautical knowledge informed the style and content of the more artistic members of the family. It is the family’s record of the evolution of sailing that sets its work apart from all others across Europe. Ideally placed in Marseilles, the family was able to observe an unequalled meeting of the vessels: stubby Danish brigs rubbed shoulders with slender tartans (Mediterranean trading vessels), British sloops-of-war dropped anchor beside the last of the war-galleys from North Africa. No ship type escaped reproduction. Travellers were going either westwards, through the Straights of Gibraltar, or eastwards to the Italian fruit ports and to the riches of the Greek islands. Captains from New England brought
valuable cargoes from North America, particularly of fustic wood for use in textile dyeing, and returned with wine and fabrics. The Roux family was fortunate to be at the solar plexus of Europe and to be ready and willing to execute commissions for the vessels as they travelled both westwards and eastwards. Antoine Roux, père, like his son of the same name,
never strayed from his home-port and was self taught, through copying the work of his idol, Joseph Vernet. His watercolours have a quiet, scholarly approach,
cywinter 2011 71
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90